The beginning of our long and arduous journey, and our new companions!

Prologue: Rules and Regulations!

So, Pokémon has been one of the most influential game series of all time. It's one of the only series that managed to span the generational gap. But as those who play it get older, we become…not bored, per sae, but expectant. We know what's going to happen, and we know when, especially if we're replaying one of the ones we've played before. So, an absolute psychopath came up with an idea on how to spice up the game: The Nuzlocke Challenge. A bunch of other psychopaths took up this idea and ran with it, and now, we're all psychopaths, running this challenge in an effort to see if we can really be the very best, like no one ever was.

I've wanted to run one of these for the longest time, but seeing as they fell out of style for a hot minute, and I'm totally a functional, hard-working adult, I never really had the time or motivation. But that changes today. Today, I begin an adventure into the unknown, and I mean the really unknown, because we'll be playing a Nuzlocke on…Black 2. A Pokémon game I bought when it came out, and never played. As Gen 5 also seems to be sparking in popularity these days, it seemed a solid fit. So, we'll be going into this almost completely blind. I know only 3 things about this game:

I. This game takes place 2 years after Black and White

II. The legendary dragon Kyurem is involved, somehow, and

III. This soundtrack is an absolute banger. Seriously, go listen to it.

Now, for those of you who don't know, the Nuzlocke challenge has a few rules:

I. There is no fainting. A Pokémon faints, and it dies. If you "white out," it's Game Over.

II. You can only catch the first Pokemon you run into in a route. No take-backsies. If the first encounter in the area is a double battle, you can choose which of the two wild Pokémon you want, but may only catch one of them. The official rules say this doesn't apply to Shiny Pokémon, but you bet it's gonna apply here.

III. You have to nickname all of your Pokémon, for the sake of forming stronger emotional bonds.

IV. No Wonder Trading or Mystery Gift Pokémon. Single-Player only, baby.

V. No reset or reboots, obviously.

So with all of that in mind, this will be a chapter-by-chapter play-by-play journal of my Nuzlocke run of Pokémon: Black 2. Let's get going.

Chapter 1: Getting Started

So, being a boy, I picked the boy character (despite some serious consideration to pick a girl character; the boy character's hair was so bad it made me sick), and knowing that the Unova region took place around New York City, gave myself and my apparent rival the two most New Yorker names I could think of; Tony and Bobby, respectively. With that decided, our journey began with my mother (good God, this entire bloodline had crappy hair) calling me into the kitchen so I could go meet Bianca, who I actually remembered from the first Gen 5 games. So,I went to meet her…

…And didn't get five feet from my house before Bobby dropped out of the sky, spouting about how "totally bored he was" looking for other trainers, his hair on a level of terrible surpassed only by my own, until he had a full-blown conniption over the idea of Bianca rolling up. Signs of an Impending Bad Guy, #1: when his sister demanded he take care of the Pokémon I would be getting, he definitely didn't…confirm that he would.

After a quick search, I found Bianca, who looked as if she'd aged ten years since the first games instead of two, and realized she was the first person with normal hair I'd seen so far.

And then…she opened the box.

I had made my decision beforehand, of course. When I played the original, I had gone with Tepig, because I was a kid and didn't understand what his evolution looked like. Now, I know better, and I pulled Oshawott out of the box. Now, a nickname…of course, a Water-type otter Pokémon deserved only one name. So with Wotter now in my possession, we stomped all over Bobby (by which I mean we tackled him so many times we broke his legs), got a tour of the Pokémon Center and a tutorial on how to catch Pokémon as if we haven't played Pokémon before, and then Bianca gave us some Poke Balls. And just like that, the Nuzlocke challenge began.

We were on our way.

A short first chapter, I know! But don't you worry, there are only going to get longer from here, friends! I look forward to our next meeting!